Solar Ovens

I bought a Sun Oven brand solar oven a while back and love it:


I was able to cook chili at 350F in the winter when it was below freezing outside.

Aside from the commercially available solar ovens, you can also make one yourself pretty easily (though it won't be as efficient as a commercial one):

http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Solar_Cooking:Frequently-asked_questions

This one looks real nice compared to what you saw a decade ago. Temp control would be nice, but I really like the leveling tray in there - great thinking.

* bump *

Sun Oven has improved their design apparently (received via email):

New Features:

• New 20% larger than prior model SUN OVEN® - now you can cook a greater volume of food and use many of your favorite, standard size baking pans!
• New E-Z Sun-track indicators - takes the guesswork out of aligning with the sun. Makes aiming toward the sun easy as 1, 2, 3!
• New improved wind resistance. Larger, T-shaped foot, with included ground stakes, increases the number of delicious meals your family can enjoy, even on breezy days!
• New sealing gasket assures better heat seal!
• New thicker, low lead glass lets more solar energy reach your food. This special glass allows your oven to get 10 - 15% hotter, delivering delicious meals in record time!
• New dual-purpose, wire leveling rack, with special air-flow design, swings freely to prevent spilling. It can also be set on the Sun Oven® floor, increasing the usable area inside!
• New CD containing hundreds of recipes, Cook’n, the #1 recipe organizer software, Emergency Preparedness information, instructional videos and more!

Click to expand...

More: http://www.sunoven.com/all-american-sun-oven

This looks interesting:




More: http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/gosun-stove-reinvents-solar-cooking.html

Apparently, this is a new company that has reached it's investment capital goal on kickstarter. The company isn't selling commercially yet, but you can pre-order one by making a $179 donation on kickstarter:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/707808908/gosun-stove-portable-high-efficiency-solar-cooker

And here's the company website (for future reference):

http://www.gosunstove.com/

Hey! A giant thermos!

that looks like a bog standard heat tube for solar hot water

Neat idea though.

Actually, a black tube in a glass bottle like that you have a superior insulation than any other method. Where I work, Liquid hydrogen, liquid nitrogen and UHP helium lines are around 3/8" but are jacketed in an 8" pipe that has been evacuated down to a hard vacuum. This way, they are affected a lot less by the brutal Florida sun. the jackets are coated with AR-7 which is an ultra high metal content aluminum coating. They take micro particles of aluminum and suspend them in a binder matrix. This is applied in 1/2 mil layers [it's really thin and hard to work with]. It flashes nearly instantly and cures in twenty minutes, so when applying twenty five coats, you don't have to wait so long between applications.

Anyhow, a vacuum is the greatest insulator.

ancona said:

Anyhow, a vacuum is the greatest insulator.

Click to expand...

...for conduction heat losses, you meant [/smartass off] ;-)



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